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Conquering fear with reason

The 16th Conference of the French Risk Managers’ Association, AMRAE, opened this afternoon (23rd January) in Deauville, Normandy, under the banner of ‘Risk Management – between fear and reason.’ Almost 1500 delegates listened to the incoming president of AMRAE, Gérard Lancner in his opening speech outline the role of the Risk Manager as the champion of reason in the face of an ever more turbulent and fearful world.

A sequence of vox pop interviews showed that people’s fears were wide-ranging, varying from a fear of cockroaches to a fear of losing ones job. However, most of the fears which feature on most lists of emerging risks were mentioned – Global warming, war, economic breakdown, failure of energy supplies. To combat such fears, said Lancner, the necessity to work together, was stronger than ever, and that included the wider risk community – not just the risk manager in isolation.

A renewal of AMRAE’s board accompanies the change of presidency, and its work is to be centered around three pillars: the life of the association, communication, and the continuing development of expertise.

In addition, outgoing president, Michel Yarhi, will continue to be involved with the organisation of the annual conference. Newly-created working groups, to include brokers and insurers, will be thematically-based, looking at everything from the coverage of terrorism risk, the economic development of regions such as China, and the risk to reputation, to operational matters such as supply-chain risk.